The test was a success and indeed is still running, however in addition the company has started rolling out a number of other projects across the UK and around the world.

Mercedes Benz now uses the delivery robots to send essential parcels around its offices in Germany, while financial company Intuit has started using them for food and drink deliveries across its 4.3 acre California campus.

The whole process takes around 17 minutes and for Intuit’s employees the most popular request has been for breakfast rolls.

Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

Here in the UK the company has launched another delivery partnership, this time with Co-op in Monkston in Milton Keynes.

Using the Starship Technologies app anyone within 1-2 miles of the store can order up to 3 full bags of grocery shopping.

The robot then delivers the groceries straight to your door.

How does it work?

Each robot has both 3G and GPS built-in which helps it travel safely around while an array of cameras and sensors will make sure it won’t become the new nemesis of cyclists.

To protect against thieves the robots are locked during delivery and can then only be opened by the customer via the smartphone app.

If someone does try to steal the drone then cameras located on its body can take pictures of the thief. If it gets in trouble every drone can be remotely controlled by a central operator.

When can I have my shopping delivered by a robot?

While it’s clear that East London and Milton Keynes is hardly ‘everywhere’, the team at Starship are confident that now their robots have entered service the scale of robot deliveries will grow quite quickly.

In fact the company has the ambitious target of being able to deliver to any UK home within just five years.

While ambitious, this doesn’t take into account all the factors that have to be considered when you start putting fleets of robots onto the pavement.